


they are not as dangerous as they are made out to be

by HannaHazzard



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (2012), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Merpeople, Pining, more character tags will follow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-20
Packaged: 2017-12-10 19:07:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannaHazzard/pseuds/HannaHazzard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Tony ever thinks about are the air breathers. Rhodey is annoyed, but tags along, and Phil is sometimes ready to strangle the boy, but he's no tattletale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I really love Disney's little mermaid, I know, there are already some AUs, but I couldn't stop myself.  
> And when I started I already got ideas how to change it, so it'll be the rough story line of Ariel, but with, well, changes.
> 
> Also I suck at title giving...
> 
> English isn't my first language, so be warned.

“Tony! Tony, your father is going t-”

 

“Oh god, Rhodey.” Tony laughed, twisting around to grin at the big turtle, swimming hesitantly behind him. His annoyed best friend. “Stop being such a spoilsport.” he poked him good naturally with his long tail. “Who knows what we will find today.” he patted a brown bag hanging from his shoulders, already filled with some treasures for his collection.

 

“You will only get in trou-”

 

“There it is!” Tony stopped in awe, mouth slightly open. Even Rhodey had to stop a second to take in the sight.

 

Their destination, a ship that had been lying down here for _years_ now, according to the seabass who had told him about it, was big. Easily the biggest wreck he'd every seen. And he had searched out a lot of them, hoping to find new interesting things about the people living outside the water.

The shore people. The air breather. The _humans_.

 

Those intriguing creatures, with two similar looking fins, where Tony and his kin had only one. Besides the numbers, their fins also looked different in color as well.

Tony's folk had one flipper, and almost each person had a different color. The humans had two, and all in the same skin color.

While the merpeoples tails were more beautiful in his opinion, the human ones were interesting on their own.

 

The shore creatures couldn't swim like them though, probably because they had trouble coordinating their two flippers, Tony imagined them to be awkward.

Anyway, instead of swimming trough the water, Tony had seen them travelling above the water in great shells made of wood, called ships, Tony had learned from his go to guy, the self proclaimed air-breather expert, and very grumpy puffin Nick.

 

This ship here must have been able to carry _a lot_ of people. It was about 100 feet long, but broken at the end, so who knew how long it had originaly been. It was almost green all over, algae where he looked, a contrast to the blue of the water all around. Many kinds of fish were mingling around the wreck, they didn't seem to be bothered by it. They brought a lot of different colors together. Tony loved colors.

 

“Common.” he grabbed the turtle around his shell and pulled him along, ignoring any protest.

 

Tony swam into the wreck with wide eyes of wonder, giddy with anticipation. He let go of Rhodey to look around.

 

Overturned tables, and chairs lying around, mostly broken and green as well, but there, something shone, half hidden under a large wooden pillar.

With a quick flick of his tail he darted over, trying to reach it without having to move the heavy object, but to no avail. “Damn.” he stretched out his arm, grunting with the effort, but a part of this ship must have collapsed here, blocking his way.

 

“Rhodey.” he whined, pouting at his best friend, pushing in vail at the things blocking his way, “Heeelp me.”

 

“Don't even think about shoving me in there! I would get stuck.” the turtle backed away, narrowing his eyes. “It's probably nothing important anyway, let's head back home. This places gives me the creeps.” he shivered as if to prove his point.

 

“Don't be such a coward, commooon, help me pu- woah.” the beam he had been pushing against, moved suddenly, but instead of clearing his way, more pieces from the ship come down.

 

“Tony!”

 

The merman quickly darted away from the danger zone and made sure Rhodey was as well.

 

“I told you it's dangerous here!” Rhodey hit him over the head with his flipper when everything settled.

 

“Ow. Hey! No need to get abusive.” Tony rubbed a hand over his head, scowling at the new barriers in his way.

“Look!” with the ceiling other things had come down as well, quickly brightening his mood. He swam over to examining the new things. Some bottles and many goblets, most of them broken but some in really good shape. He picked one up that had many different colors.

Grinning, he rubbed away dirt mottling it and stuffed it in his bag. New piece for his secret treasure.

 

“Tooony.” Rhodey complained exasperated, “can we please go _home_?”

 

“Soon, Sugar Plum.” the teen said absentmindedly, “Let me ju- uuh, shiny!” he exclaimed and darted forward and grabbed a handful of sand. He let the grains escape trough his fingers and found five golden coins in his palm, they were quickly pocketed as well.

 

“Your father will be most displeased when he finds out where you always rove around. And one day, I just know it, he'll ban me from Atlantica. He can't do that with you, you are his son, but me. Can you have that on your conscience? Can y- Are you even listening to me!?”

 

Tony was not. Rhodey was always saying the same anyway. Admonishing him for liking human things, for collecting his treasures, for doing in his opinion dangerous things, for going to the surface, which, ok, was strictly forbidden, but still. He complained about _everything_.

Still, he'd never tattle on Tony or leave him alone or anything, he was his best friend after all.

 

“Sure Rhodey, nag nag nag, let's go home.” he grinned, pocketing another thing he had no idea what it was. One end was slightly bigger, perfect size to wrap his hand around, while the other was wa thinner, round until the end, where it was flat. Hm. He would have to ask Nick later.

 

Rhodey rolled his eyes, but followed along when Tony continued his exploring.

 

They spend a long time searching the ship, the young turtle grumbling along, and the merman filling his pocket with a lot of things.

 

 

“Awesome wasn't it?” Tony grabbed Rhodey by his flippers and pulled him along as he swam in a circle.

“My bag is bursting, Why don't we head to Nick tomorrow, there are a lot of things he has to tell me about.” the dark haired boy smiled and to Rhodey's relief finally turned into the direction of Atlantica.

 

“Tony, King Howard will kill us both, if he finds out we are even thinking about going to the surface.”

 

“Then he'd better not find out, sourpuss.” Tony laughed, one hand held protectively over his bag.

 

_"Prince Anthony!"_


	2. Chapter 2

“Prince Anthony!”

“Fucking hell.” the young Prince put a hand on his bare chest, willing his heart to slow down again. He whirled around, looking for the source of the voice, stopping when he saw Rhodey looking defeated to the right. 

He groaned and his shoulders slumped when he saw his dad's counselor, sea crab extraordinaire, Phil.   
Quickly he put on a fake smile, “Phil, hi, how are you? Fancy meeting you here.” he turned a bit, hoping he could keep his bag from the sharp eyes. 

“Don't even try to hide it, Tony!” Phil swam up in front of his head. “Your father is livid, you missed the Birthday Feast!” Tony screwed up his face, damn, already that late? “I could barely stop him from searching for you himself.”

“Ups, well,” Tony tried to shrug it off, debating on swimming as fast as he could in the opposite direction of home, “I'm sure they enjoyed it anyway.”

Phil scowled at him, and despite the fact he was way smaller than Tony, he looked quite intimidating when he waved his pincer at his face, probably thinking about pinching his nose, “It was your birthday feast!”

“I know that!” he swatted at the crab, “I'm sure they found other things to entertain themselves. Dad is an excellent entertainer.” It was true. He loved to tell stories about travelings, fights and what not.

Howard was a strong and just king, he ruled with a firm had, and was an even firmer farther, but good at both of it usually. At least Tony thought so when they weren't arguing again...mainly about Tony's fixation on humans.

“He's probably not happy, but I could tell him I...fell asleep...or something...hm.” he made a thoughtful face.

“He's not stupid, you know.” Phil frowned, and even Rhodey gave him a funny look.

“I'll think of something.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Come on let's go home. And don't tattle, Phil.” he grinned and poked his small shell.

“I am the King's Advisor. I do not 'tattle'. I inform the Ruler of Atlantica of the important things happening in his kingdom.”

Both the turtle and the merman rolled their eyes. “Advisor who stars as a super nanny.” Tony whispered to his best friend. 

“Keep that up, young Prince, and I may have to reevaluate just how important this occurrence had been.” Phil stated over their giggling, shutting them up immediately. 

“Didn't say anything.” Tony reassured quickly.

“Of course you didn't.”

Phil was alright, in Tony's opinion. He work for his father and took his job very seriously, but he wouldn't try to get Tony in trouble deliberately. He knew of the things the Prince was up to, even that he'd been to the surface once...well he only knew of one time at least. 

That had gifted him with the lecture of his life from the little crab, about how dangerous humans are, that they capture him if they ever saw him, that they would eat him, all the horror stories Howard tries to impregnate in all the habitants of Atlantica. He'd finished with the promise that he'd just keep this secret once from the king. If Phil caught Tony up there again, he'd tell his father.  
And who knows what Howard is going to do then. Probably lock him up forever.

So it'd better stay between him and Rhodey.

The other things though, his exploring and even his secret cave, filled with beautiful treasures lost or thrown away by the humans, they were...accepted and not 'tattled' about. Which reminded him...

“Hey Phil, wanna see what I've found?” he asked excitedly, already fumbling in his bag.

“Not real-”

“Look. Look!”

Phil protested loudly when a hand grabbed him, and shiny round silver coins were shoved in front of his eyes.   
One day he'd kill the boy, gave him nothing but a headache, with his human nonsense.   
Like today, he'd to listen to the kings rambling for what felt like hours, about his youngest, irresponsible wayward son, missing his own birthday party and embarrassing him. Phil had heard the anger and disappointment in Howard's voice, but also the worry that something could have happened to his son, because Phil knew for a fact that King Howard loved all of his kids.

Phil had calmed the father and assured him he'd find Tony quickly, that he'd probably lost his time again and that everything was fine.

The princelings love for the air-breathers and everything concerning him was frustrating and annoying and the crab should have probably told the king about his son's hobby ages ago.   
Howard knew to some extend, of course, but after countless arguments with his youngest, he thought Tony just admired in his dreams or something, likes to talk about humans, think about them, but Phil knew, if he ever found Tony's secret layer he'd be...very displeased. With his son, and with Phil himself. 

And yet... seeing Tony glowing with happiness and excitement like this, talking about his findings and what they could be. Showing so much passion...Phil was sure it would kill Tony to lose this. To lose the connection to the land folks. 

“And this is for...well...I'm not really sure, but isn't it beau-” 

Tony stopped in his ramblings and Phil followed his gaze. A large shadow was creeping over the ground, far to the left and going into the direction they were coming from. 

All three of them looked up to the source of the big dark blotch gliding over the sand. Eyes going higher and higher, up to the enormous thing, drifting on the surface. Great. A ship.

“Tony, don't even think about it.” Phil turned away from the sight when he heard the prince's turtle friend talking, looking at Tony who was starring with glistening eyes and open mouth, completely ignorant to Rhodey, who was tugging at his arm. “Tony! Come on.”  
Sensing bad things about to happen, Phil quickly pinched the hand still holding him.

“Ow!” Tony jerked out of his trance, shaking the crab on his finger off. “Are you nuts!?”

“Keep swimming, Anthony.” Phil said in a low voice, daring to be disobeyed.

“I wasn't doing anything!” Tony threw up his handy, before wincing and sticking his throbbing finger in his mouth, eye's twitching to the ship. “Jus' looking.” he mumbled sulkily.

“Then keep it at that. Let's go home.” Rhodey’s voice was warning. 

“Yes. Listen to your friend.” 

“Yeah. No. Let's just… Yeah home.” Tony said, nodded, telling himself they should. They turned to head home. And Tony had every intention to do that. Really. But...

“No you know what?” he slid the bag from his shoulder and let it sink to the ground, he'd get it later, “I'll just take a quick look, just a peek really.” 

Phil spluttered, “No! No you w-” but Tony was already gone.

Rhodey groaned audibly, “Tony! Get back here!”

“Fuck.” both animals exclaimed. And without consulting each other they headed after him.

 

Tony raced trough the water as fast as he could higher and higher up. Humans! He was going to see humans!  
His head broke the surface and he quickly shoved his hair back, looking ahead. He was still a few feet away from the ship and he dove back under just to make sure no one would see him approach. 

Directly beside the ship he slowly pushed his head up again, stopping when his eyes were above the water to look it someone was watching, before going higher.  
He almost trembling with excitement, felt giddy, as he heard voices from above, music playing. 

Right above him was a hole a bit larger than his head. If he pulled himself up there he'd be able to see, but what if he was seen as well? 

Biting his lip he debated on turning back, before shaking his head, and searching for a handhold. “Too close now.”  
It took some wriggling and some quiet cursing, but he managed to slowly pull himself up to his goal.  
“Ok, now or never Anthony.” he took a breath and looked trough the hole. “Wow.”

 

That were a lot of humans. They were, jumping around? Dancing, they were dancing on their fins. Some were singing and others just looking around. Tony grinned. They looked happy, and mostly friendly. Not at all like his dad always made them seem to be. 

It looks like they have to compensate for their dull colored fins though, all of them were wearing lots of different colors.

“Tony!” a familiar voice hissed below him and he looked down to see two very enraged animals. He gave them a smile, his fin moved in the rhythm of the music slightly and he turned back to his peephole. Only to be startled almost bad enough to fall back down to the water again. He came face to face with some furry form, tongue dangling out, big black nose, and he was huffing rather loudly. 

Tony pressed his lips together to stop any sound that may or may not wanted to come out and froze, to afraid to much but stare back.

The nose came right in his face and he seriously thought about just jumping back down when the tongue of the thing, animal he guessed, licked a wet stripe up his cheek.

“Dummy! Dummy, get back here!”

The thing made a loud noise and run away again. Tony quickly ducked, just in case someone was looking where...the dummy? Had come from.  
But the man who had called out just reached out to pet the dummy and gave him some food. He was thin, with dark hair almost like Tony's, kept short. He looked rather tall, and very handsome.

“Do you really have to call him that? It sounds rather mean.” another man joined the dark haired one.   
Dummy made that funny noise again and run up to the newcomer, and damn. If Tony thought the first was handsome, well he got nothing on this one!

Taller than the other with golden hair glistening like the sun. His eyes were as blue as the ocean and he had the most beautiful smile Tony had ever seen. 

“The name fits Stevie-boy. You can't deny it.” the first one laughed, rubbing the dummy fondly over the head.

“Think we'll be home soon, Buck?” handsome asked.

“Sure do, won't take long anymore, why don't you just enjoy the party, Steve?”

Blondie, Steve, Steeeve, what a nice name, Steve nodded to the end of the ship, “Can't. Not while being chased by this.” 

The other suddenly looked serious as well and nodded. Tony, curious as ever, looked as well, but what was he looking at?

“To be honest I don't think we'll make it before the storm hits.” dark hair said. Oh, they were looking at the dark clouds. Ok. “But it's not the first hit of nature we endured. Don't worry.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Well, ready the crew, we should prepare for this weather.” Steve said and made to leave, but stopped when a third man joined the two. This one was obviously older than the others, gray hair and wrinkles. 

“Prince Steven, I was wondering if you noticed the weather.” Oh, a Prince, Tony smiled slightly.

“Yes, Jarvis. Thank you. Bucky and I just talked about it.”

“Very well.”

To Tony dismay, Steve left then, somewhere to the right where he'd only be able to see it he stuck his head through the hole, and he really wasn't that reckless. 

 

“Prince Anthony, you get back down here at once or I swear I'm going straight to the king!”

Tony winced a the threat. For a millisecond he asked himself if Phil was bluffing, but quickly decided from the tone that no, he was not. So he sighed and with one last glance he lowered himself back down, meeting two angry sets of eyes with a sheepish grin.

“Hey, guys, let's just...all stay calm now alright?”


	3. Chapter 3

Tony felt too giddy to listen to the lecture he got from his friends, all he could think about was him. _Steve_.

He imagined himself touching the sun kissed hair. It looked so soft and golden, he wanted-

 

“Anthony!” Phil got right in his face, looking really angry. Not like the usually annoyance he displayed to hide that he actually really liked Tony. Real anger and maybe a hint of fear and concern. Tony had the grace to look at least a bit guilty. “I warned you, Tony! You know I don't make idle threats. What were you thinking?! You weren't! What if they had seen you?”

 

“But Phil, I just-”

 

“No! I don't want to hear it. Home. Now.”

 

Tony looked at his best friend for help, but Rhodey only scowled back at him, nodding in the direction of home.

 

Slumping his shoulders in defeat he he turned, swimming home, hoping desperately the crab wouldn't tell his dead. He'd never see the open ocean again if he did.

And yet, even if he did, Tony couldn't bring himself to feel the amount of regret he should be feeling. Because it was worth it. He had seen humans! A bunch of them.

 

And _Steve_. He'd only seen him for a few minutes and didn't know him at all, it was irrational he knew and yet...he couldn't stop his heart from beating a bit faster at the thought of him and a strange tingling spread in his belly.

 

He put his hand on his stomach and hoped the others wouldn't notice anything. He was in enough trouble as it was.

 

 

They hadn't gotten very far, when they suddenly heard something hitting the water, rushing deeper.

Tony whirled back around. He knew it came from the ship and squinted his eyes, gasping when he recognized it. Him. Steve floating limply in the water, the ship already a bit away, leaving him behind.

 

He didn't hesitate this time and charged back as fast as he could, leaving behind his shouting companions once again.

 

Humans can't live under water, he knew that much. They needed the in-between. The air between sky and water. And he could see the air leaving in tiny bubbles, rising to the surface.

 

Reaching the human, he didn't think about breaking out in euphory, that he was touching a human, that he was touching Steve. All he could think about was bringing him to the surface. Up for air or he'd die.

So he slipped his arms around the blond's waist and pushed upwards with strong strokes.

 

It took longer than he wanted, even though it probably were only a few seconds until their heads broke the surface, and Tony had never felt so relived when Steve sucked in a breath, chocking up water, hacking painfully, and soon, his breath evened out.

His eyes never opened and the human slumped into Tony arms, head resting on the merman's shoulder and his arms and legs hanging limply, but he was breathing. Tony took that as a good sign. A sign of life.

The light from just moments ago was gone, the sun and light cloud overtaken by dark, weeping clouds. Strong wind tussled Tony's dark hair. 

 

Now that the slight panic was over he became aware of the more than close proximity between the two of them. There wasn't even a between to speak of. Chest to chest. Golden hair brushing his cheek, the face pressed against him, and the breath puffing from the lips at his neck.

 

He blushed furiously and almost dropped Steve back into the water.

 

“Tony!”

 

He willed the redness of his face away and tried to relax as much as possible without dropping his precious burden.

 

Rhodey slowly swam into his line of sight, at a safe distance. On top of his shell stood a _very_ displeased crab with crossed pincers.

He'd just signed his death warrant. But he couldn't just...

 

“Don't look at me like that!” he said, loud enough that they could hear him, “I couldn't- Oh for goodness sake would you come over here! He is unconscious!”

 

Cautiously Rhodey made his way over to his idiot friend, ready to throttle him with his own flippers. Reaching him though he couldn't help but look at the human. Phil would do the lecture part better than him anyway.

 

“I am deeply disappointed in you. And rest assured I will inform the King about your reckless behavior.” Phil spoke calmly, but with steel in his voice. Tony hated when he did that. An angry and loud Phil was ok, he could deal with that. An angry and calm Phil, not so much.

 

“Phil, what would you have me do? I had no choice, please.”

 

The Kings counselor didn't give an inch, “I would like to have you at home already. Rhodey!” the turtle quickly pulled back from examining the human. “Stop poking him, you airshell! You'll wake him up.”

 

“He would have died, Phil.” Tony's hold tightened slightly around the man in his arms, who was blissfully unaware of everything going on here. “You schooled me. You know he can't survive under water!”

 

“What happens to humans is non of our business. We don't get involved with any of them. We don't jump onto their ships and spy on them. We leave them alone.”

 

“If I had turned my back on him he would be dead by now. I would have killed him. I'm not a killer, Phil!” Tony tried to be not too aggressive, but he needed Phil to understand and not swim home and send the guards after him, or his dad. “You taught me the difference between right and wrong, you know I did the right thing.”

 

Phil rubbed his head and took a moment to collect his thoughts. The boy was right of course. The crab didn't care much for the shore people, but that didn't mean he wanted them to die. He was just still angry for Tony first, completely unneccessary stint.

 

Tony saw the change in Phil's demeanor and quickly pulled out the his pleading face, head tilted down, slight pout and big eyes. “Please Phil.”

 

“I know I will regret saying this,” Rhodey joined the conversation, “but I do think, this time, Tony is right.”

 

Finally the crab threw up his pinchers in frustrated defeat. “You take the last streaks of my sanity, do you know that?”

 

Tony's face lit up, “I'll take care of you then, promise.”

 

“If you don't get us all killed first.” Phil muttered before turning serious again, “Alright, the shore is not far from here. Let's just go there and...drop him at the beach I guess.”

 

“Alright!” Tony couldn't keep the grin from his face. Best birthday ever. He heaved the human, Steve, a little higher, adjusted the form better against him and started to swim.

 

“Tony!” Phil called through his happy haze, “we have to go south.”

 

Oh. “Knew that.” he singsonged and turned around, always careful to keep Steve's head above water. “You are so smart, Phil.” he nodded solemnly.

 

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” the smallest member of the gang settled down on Rhodey's shell, he sure as hell wasn't going to swim himself for this. “Now move your Royal tail, I don't want him to wake up before we reach the dry land.”

 

“Yes, sir.” Tony gave a quick salute, but quickly grabbed on to the human when he started to slide from his grip.

 

It was strange to have him in his arms. The human upper body felt similar to his, well ok, maybe he had a bit (a lot) more muscles to show than Tony, the fins though, were a bit distracting, and the Prince tried to keep them from brushing against his tail.

He did want to examine them closer, but that was out of question right now with his two observer, and having those unfamiliar things bump against him felt strange.

 

The storm was still persistent, but it was lacking now in it's force thankfully. The clouds moving on to bother other places. It was hard enough just to swim while carrying someone this big over the surface, and the wind and rain just made it more difficult.

 

Under water it would be so much easier. And the waves stirred up by the wind didn't help either.

“Goodness. Any help? He's heavier then he looks.” Tony pulled the blond head back up when he slipped.

 

“I'm sure you'll manage.”

 

 

 

It took them a while, but finally they could see the shore. The storm was now all but gone. Left as fast as it had hit and the human was still blissfully unconscious, which was a miracle in Phil's opinion with Tony's constant complaining and annoying 'are we there yet?'s.

 

Up ahead was a wide stretch of yellow sand, on the left, quite a lot of rocks led from the beach wide into the water and to the right was a path that, Phil new, led into a city. If it was the human one's he didn't know, nor did he really care, but he assumed it was, since the ship headed this way.

 

“Alright Prince, just drop him over there. Hey! Tony!” he interrupted the boy's dreamy gaze as his eyes locked on to the beach.

 

“Uh, right, right. I'm on it. I'll just...bring him to the rocks over there.”

Tony somewhat reluctantly made his way to the nearest connection between deep water and land. Rhodey rolled his eyes, but dutifully followed.

 

“We'll just put him up there and then quickly leave, right Tony?” the turtle prodded, just to make sure. “No lingering.”

 

“Yeah, I got it. Stop fretting.”

 

The merman swam up to the farthest rock he could reach, to draw it out. A little part of him wanted Steve to wake up, so Tony could hear his voice again and maybe they could talk and maybe they could be friends and... but maybe he was a little bit scared of it too.

 

He was like...97% sure, all, or at least most of the horror stories his kin spread over the humans were untrue. So it wasn't that, or that he feared how the blond would react when he saw Tony, really. Just...it was late, he should get home before his father comes out to retrieve him himself. Yeah, that was it.

 

“Come on, Tony. Get a move.”

 

Ups, the turtle had reached the goal before him, maybe that was a bit too much drawing out.

 

“Coming.”

 

Ok, now all he had to do was push Steve...he should really stop calling him by his name, just keep it professional...so he should just shove the random human he'd coincidentally found in the deeper waters up on the slab of rock. Said human would be fine, his aching arms would be free again and everyone could be on their merry way.

 

Right. He braced his hands on the man's hips to boost him on the dry land, what he didn't expect though, were the strong fingers closing around his left wrist and the hand taking hold of the rock.

 

And suddenly he was face to face with ~~Steve~~ the human, surprised brown eyes met curious and still slightly confused blue.

Tony froze up immediately, muscles tensed and breath speeding up. They were close, not as close as they had been during the way here, but this was a different close. The hand around his wrist had pulled Tony's unresisting form in, and St- the human was blinking at him through some of his blonde strands, more and more alert.

 

“Wha- Ow!”

 

The spell was broken suddenly and Tony felt the hand holding him pull back as if stung. The merman realized quickly the he had indeed been stung, well pinched by a quick red flash of a crab, and the man cradled the hand protectively to his chest.

 

“Go Tony!”

 

The Prince couldn't help but mourn the contact for a second, but he couldn't ignore the urgent order and quickly pushed away from the stunned blond. Quick thinking made him grab his friends and pull them to his chest, before swimming away as fast as he could.

 

The last thing he heard was a frantic, “No. Wait!” before he dived and made a mad dash towards home.

 

He'd later regret that he didn't wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve's pov next round

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed


End file.
